Failed Trap
Fall 2001

~*~*~*~*~

Lane gazed around the apartment proudly, brushing off his clothes and smiling. Several months of hard work at two jobs and saving had resulted in a somewhat decent living environment complete with couch, table, sitting cushions, and a rather nicely covered bed tucked back in the bedroom. Living in Ningenkai certainly wasn’t easy, or cheap, he’d slept on the floor for a good month. In fact Ningen was terribly complicated, but at least he was never bored.

Especially now that Tyger had been paying visits.

The Jujin would steal her way into his bedroom window, second floor, but with a perfect tree outside that allowed easy access. Usually it was in the evening when he was cooking dinner, and he always tended to make more than he could eat. Naturally he was inclined to share.

That first time she’d made the excuse to visit, about a month ago, she’d flitted right back out after eating without so much as a goodbye. Lane had forgotten the excuse she’d used. Ty reappeared four evenings later, without an excuse, just a ‘Heya icicle!’ and promptly plopped herself back down in the same place for another meal. She’d stayed longer, and despite her complaints that he had no forms of entertainment in his place, they’d entertained themselves quite well. Then she was gone again.

The koorime settled himself down on the arm of the couch, running his hands over the fabric. He’d used his day off from both jobs to take the time and buy it, surprising those he’d bought it from by insisting he could take it home himself, on foot, and he had.

It had been three nights since Ty had last visited, she’d never gone more than four, not in an entire month. Lane glanced outside to gauge the time, his one clock was in the bedroom to be sure he awoke promptly at four to get to work by five. At noon he went from that job straight to his other on most days, working there until six. They were both clothing stores at the mall, two of the nicer ones that had offered better pay with hours that worked together in that nice little schedule without variation. He’d applied at nearly every store in the mall on a trip with Kesu, unfortunately outdoing the kitsune.

However, the second store had been so desperate to have Lane he’d been able to set a condition, to interview Kesu as well. Kesu now worked with him, from noon - since his senior school day was only a half day - until six every day. Lane enjoyed working with him, and the hours gave the kitsune time to be with his vampire companion at night.

The light outside told him it was too early to begin preparing dinner, but he hated sitting idle. That was part of his reason for taking two jobs, might as well do something productive that he enjoyed. Not that he particularly enjoyed selling clothes, but it was a nice social experience and fairly well paying – as strange as Ningen was about their currency system.

The koorime slipped fluidly from the couch arm and to the kitchen area. He tried to stall, cleaning what was already clean – he didn’t handle days off well. Still he found himself preparing dinner earlier than normal. More than likely his timing didn’t matter, he doubted Tyger would show up.

Was he actually hoping she’d come that night? Yes, there was a certain amount of anticipating at that certain time each evening, but never like this. This was a little different, the wanting a little stronger. Lane loved the time she spent with him, hated it every time she slipped away from him and vanished right back out the window. He found himself wishing, as he finished preparing dinner, that for once she would stay at least until morning. Especially on this night when he didn’t have to be up so early, no work until noon. What would he do with the entire morning?

“Tsk tsk icicle,” a familiar throaty purr from the couch, “makin dinner early tonight.”

“Tyger,” Lane smiled broadly, shaking his head and grabbing another plate before turning to look at her, “I didn’t have anything else to do.”

The dark skinned Jujin reclined on the couch as if inspecting it, a little playful smile on her lips. “This is new.”

“Yes, I bought it today,” Lane tore his eyes away from her to prepare the plates.

“Hmm, it’s okay,” Ty hummed like she could care less, “better than nothing I suppose. Was getting tired of sitting on the floor.”

Lane hid his smirk, her tone spoke like he’d bought the couch just for her, so she wouldn’t have to complain anymore about eating the traditional way of kneeling on the floor. Perhaps some of that was true, her little complaints reminded him what he needed to buy next, because really he had no idea about how a ningen apartment was ‘supposed’ to look. Two months on his own, he was still quite naïve.

The koorime brought Ty her plate, handing it to her instead of setting it upon the table. As he’d figured, she reclined where she was on the couch and ate happily. Lane smiled to himself and settled down at the table.

“You cook okay snowflake, what box did you get this outta?”

“I ask the ladies at work for recipes,” Lane explained softly. Then he remembered something, surprising Tyger a little bit as he jumped to his feet and went to the fridge. He returned and handed her a cold soda can.

“Hey root beer.. awesome icy, bout time you got something decent to drink,” she smirked, mostly hiding her appreciation, but he could see a little bit. “Now you just need like a TV… radio… ya know,” she waved her fork around the fairly empty room, “And definitely some stuff on these walls, look at this… its like livin in a box.”

Lane blinked at the walls, “What kind of stuff?”

“Geez snowflake, posters, pictures, anything!”

Lane nearly jumped when she set her plate down on the table, a little harder than just setting it, but not hard enough to break it. She reached and grabbed the nearest available braided strand of his hair and tugged, just enough to be painful, but that she knew he could deal with. Tyger tugged him up onto the couch with her and kept tugging until she was reclined back with his slender body fitted closely to her curvaceous figure. She usually didn’t waste time.

“You know… you’re free to visit… anytime,” Lane murmured against her lips, focusing on the kiss when she nipped him to get his full attention, her tongue viciously parting his lips and darting into his mouth.

“Tyger!” he yelped, laughing, when she shoved him hard enough to flip him right off the couch, snickering and falling atop him as he slid to the floor between the couch and the table. Her claws were like vices in his shoulder. It happened, kept his healing ability in practice at least.

“I like it when you yell my name,” Ty purred against his neck, kissing fiercely.

Lane half chuckled and half moaned, shifting himself beneath her and sliding his hands up beneath her shirt. Mmm, yes, he’d definitely missed her. “Tyger…” he gasped, wriggling as her teeth grazed his ear.

“Mmm?” the Jujin purred.

Lane decided against saying what he wanted to say, grinning instead as his fingers pressed hard against her back and slid down, expertly descending beneath the fabric of her pants. “I have a bed, you know?”

Ty sat up a little bit, licking her lips and gazing down as her fingers quickly worked the buttons of his shirt, almost too quickly for the delicate threads that held the buttons on. “Mmhmm… we’ll get there, not about to plead incapable on me are ya, snow-boy?” she parted the shirt and ran her hands up and down the planes of his chest.

“Of course not,” Lane reached up with a slender hand and pulled her head back down for another kiss, their tongues sparring vehemently, as if it were a real battle.

Ty sat up a second time and gave the table a shove, giving them a little more room, damn thing kept nudging against her ribs. She went to pull her shirt over her head, but Lane abruptly sat up and captured her arms over her head just as the fabric concealed her face. He nudged it upwards a little more, darting the barest of kisses against her lips as they were freed from the shirt.

“Lane,” she growled, deep and husky, trying to capture his mouth without success. His grip upon her wrist was not tight, she could easily get free – it was the fun of it she enjoyed. The koorime could certainly get playful.

Lane’s deftly aggressive fingers stroked and tugged at her nipples as his tongue darted motions across her seeking lips. Her growling grew even more throaty. Fun yes, but there was only so much teasing she could take.

“What do you want Ty?” he breathed against her lips, daring to delve his tongue a little deeper to graze her teeth, her lips nearly catching his.

“My way,” she snarled.

The koorime conceded to their sort of ‘code’ they’d taken to using. He crushed her lips with a consuming kiss and stretched languorously to remove her shirt the rest of the way, running his fingers down through her hair.

“Let it all down,” Ty’s voice was a tinge softer, breathless, tangling her fingers in the strands of hair he had not captured with a braid.

Lane reached back and quickly unwound each and every braid as she continued kissing him, cradling his face in her hands, claws grazing along his jawbone, tickling his ears. She pushed his shirt back off his shoulders, kissing harshly down his neck to his collarbone, licking that depression in the center. Ty gave a firm shove to his chest when he’d finished with all the braids, pushing him back down onto the floor and sitting above him as if triumphant.

The koorime gazed up at her, the icy blue of his half-lidded eyes swirling, the white frame of his hair like a blanket beneath him, contrasting sharply with the darkness of the carpet. His pale lips were parted slightly as his chest worked a little harder for breath. She had said her way, meaning he would only do as told when told, until she said otherwise.

“Ty,” he murmured, trying not to writhe beneath her.

Tyger responded by grinning seductively, shifting her hips just enough to increase that pressure that was already burning through him. Her clawed hands slipped down over her perfectly-defined stomach, slipping just barely beneath her pants as her tongue ran over her lips. Now she was teasing him. If he reached for her she’d move, he’d learned that quickly enough, and although that little chase game was fun, he didn’t feel like it.

Her claws made odd scratching noises against the denim of his jeans, tracing the outline of his confined erection. Lane forced himself as still as he could, entire frame quivering with barely restrained need. The Jujin bent forward slowly, hands trailing up his stomach and across his chest, slipping beneath his head as she kissed him intensely, urgently.

“What would you do if I left, Lane?” she breathed against his lips.

“I would ‘really’ miss you,” he answered honestly, but with a tone that made it an entirely sexual comment, concealing his true meaning. Ty snickered softly, moving to nibble at his ear, leaving just enough room between them for his hands to roughly massage her breasts. Damn he knew just how to touch her…. She snarled and thrust her hips viciously down against him, grinning at the sharp cry the motion tore from his chest.

Then she vanished, the flash of her shirt vanishing down the hallway behind her. Lane laughed silently to himself as he moved languorously to peer around the corner, a flash of amethyst eyes and a throaty laugh answering him. So, she had wanted a chase. He ducked his head around the corner into his bedroom, nearly knocked off his feet by a sudden movement of cloth in the face. Then he was knocked off his feet by something feeling suspiciously like a Tyger. He wrestled her shirt away to gaze up at the Jujin once more sitting victoriously over him, purring proudly.

“You have to catch me if you want me,” she nearly giggled, vanishing again.

Lane growled, sitting up and looking to each side up and down the hallway, having no idea where she’d gone this time. He tossed her shirt forward into the bedroom, hearing a faintly muffled laugh when it landed on the other side of his bed. Ah ha.

The koorime crept forward, sliding silently across the mattress, then leapt across the other half. Tyger squealed and tried to run, grabbing a hold of one of the bed posts, but his momentum behind her only made her spin and land facedown against the foot of the bed. Lane leaned across her back, purring and nipping her ear.

“Caught you,” his hands slipped around her waist, across the smoothness of her belly, fingers deftly working the closures of her pants despite her wriggling.

Tyger did her best to keep her claws from permanently damaging his blankets, and she really didn’t want to get away anyway. She shivered as air replaced her jeans, reaching back to grab the bed post and lifted herself up, kicking her clothes away. Lane kissed down along her spine, hands firmly grasping her waist as his tongue against the small of her back made her arch back. She forced enough of a coherent thought to fight those strong hands enough to turn.

Lane answered by darting his tongue forward, seeking for the center of her pleasure. Ty couldn’t help but moan and throw her head back when he found it, caressing it roughly before putting it through a long and torturous suckle. She shuddered violently, uncontrollably thrusting herself in offering to him, losing herself...

“Stop!” Ty finally roared, wrenching the koorime’s head up with two handfuls of hair, making him wince.

She regretted it, a little, and ran her fingers through his hair, maybe soothing, maybe, not likely. Ty crawled back along the bed, guiding him along with her until she settled back into the pillows, pulling him down for a kiss. Her vicious hands shoved their way to his waist, harshly removing his jeans, running her claws along the stretchy fabric of those tight shorts he wore.

Tearing him away from ravishing her neck with kisses, she slammed him back onto the bed with a growl, kicking his jeans away. She pressed her palm fiercely against the hardness that strained against his last piece of clothing, rubbing with vicious and torturing friction. Lane writhed against her, pinned to the mattress by her use of her overwhelming strength. He looked even prettier with his face flushed like that, lost to the sensations of pleasure, desire burning in him white hot.

“Tyger,” he gasped, eyes wide and begging.

The Jujin removed his shorts in a swift blur of motion, snarling and purring in the same excited noise as she straddled his narrow hips. She positioned herself expertly and sheathed him inside her, hard and fast. Lane arched in response, spearing her even deeper. Ty’s claws pierced the pale flesh of his waist as she set a feverish pace for him to match.

Lane grasped her hips and paused at the apex of a trembling thrust, icy gaze locked on her. Ty conceded silently and let herself be pushed onto her back, the two of them moving so perfectly through the motion that he remained within her. She locked her strong legs around him, purring as she once again commanded the rate of the continuing thrusts. He met the pace vigorously, but she loved pushing his limits.

“Faster,” Ty hissed breathlessly.

Tyger reached up and back, grasping the headboard in a vice, throwing her head back and surrendering to the brutal pounding her own command produced. It always added something fierce and sharp to Lane’s delicate features that thrilled her to her core, something almost feral never seen anywhere but at that moment when she pushed him like that. She tore her vice-like fingers from the headboard and reached to draw him down, his hair spilling fluidly over her shoulders and chest, making her shiver from the sensations.

“Harder,” she whimpered, bringing him completely down against her to nip at his ear, unable to suppress the moans that tore free from her lips.

Lane kissed at her neck, hard, then bit at the juncture between her neck and shoulder. By the gods he bit her! And damn it felt good! Ty roared and arched her back powerfully, shuddering as he hit that place so deep within her. She came so hard, her inner muscles clenching so violently they nearly forced him out of her. He growled, already passed the point of painfully needing release but controlling himself in wait for her, and slammed into her one more time, filling her with a flood that burned and yet was strangely and soothingly cool.

Tyger collapsed back against the bed, panting for breath and slipping into that lethargy that always followed – she’d shake it off to leave in a little while. Lane’s slender and cool body stretched out atop her lazily, the boy nuzzling into her neck. That was something she really loved, that soothing coolness of him even after all that… exertion. She ran her fingers through his hair, half-lidded eyes watching as she’d raised her arm and the strands would slip and tumble back down.

“Tyger?” his soft voice lilted with the questioning tone.

“What Lane?” she tried to add a tinge of annoyance, it didn’t work. After a minute of the koorime fidgeting in silence, however, was enough to annoy her, “What do you want Lane?”

“Please, Ty… please. All I want from you now is that you stay… please stay this time,” his soft voice pleaded, those beautifully swirling eyes wandering to capture all of her visage. His slender and oh-so talented fingers caressed her cheek.

“Why?” Ty found her voice was not as strong as she’d hoped.

“Because I… love you… I love you, Tyger. I’ll let you go if you wish, of course, but I want nothing more than you to stay.”

Ty tensed in reflex. Was the boy nuts, had living on his own in Ningen finally driven him insane? Why was she here again, she had to remind herself. A totally non-committal not-at-all-a-relationship arrangement. Yeah, that was it Tyger, a fling whenever SHE felt like it, because he was good for that, she had to give him that credit. He was damn good. There was nothing more to it. Love was NOT her department.

He was slender and light, tall yes, but frail despite his hidden strengths. The Jujin pondered slamming him against the wall and then leaving, maybe knock some sense into him. But she couldn’t. Those icy orbs were studying her lips, worried in a way he could not conceal. He knew she was going to leave no matter what he said, he couldn’t conceal that from her either. Those eyes looked so hurt.

“Lane, let me go,” her command – if it could be called that – was even weaker than her question, barely a breath.

The koorime obeyed anyway, rising slightly from her body enough to let her move quickly to the side of the bed. He settled back down in the depression left by her absence, head curled like he sometimes did against her chest, only this time against the pillow. Ty paused on the edge of the bed, snatching up clothes, distracted by looking at that sight, remembering how his hair slid over her skin when he laid against her. It was like cool air given physical form.

TygerShadow fled then, leaving him alone.

Lane opened his eyes, long eyelashes disturbing his bangs, gazing at nothing. He should know better than to try and trap a Tyger.

~*~*~*~*~

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